I remember my father saying, 'I don't know why they're spending so much money. No one will watch this. It'll be over in six months.' But Michael [Landon] knew because a whole generation of women grew up reading the books and then became teenagers watching Little Joe in Bonanza.
I knew we were having some kind of impact-people were freaking out about my character within days. The very next day [after Nellie's premiere], I went to school, and some girl called me a bitch.
It was getting recognized, and I thought, 'The seven-year contract might actually be real!' By year three, it was really becoming a thing.
I had never watched a complete episode of the series before joining it. I had never read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.
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